This video addresses the many challenges confronting Afrikan liberation.
March 17, 2009
Blessed Heart of Love; Salaam in Afrikadesta
I welcome you , the Mothers and Fathers of the Bahamas Pan Afrikan National Congress, to this our humble first steps for our empowerment as a people at home and abroad. I once again apologise for the extremely late notice for tonight’s workshops. We were challenged in finding a venue and thanks to Father Archer we have been able to secure these premises for our workshop deliberations. Many would have not have had sufficient time to make arrangements to attend tonight and in a number of cases we have been unable to make contact with many who have committed to the goals and objectives which have brought us all together tonight with one resolve, to come up with collective solutions to our common problems.
In this regard, I want to thank Brother Alex Morley for reminding us in his blog (blackfood.org) what Brother Malcolm ( El Hajj Malik Al Shabazz) reminded us time and time again:
We don’t catch hell because we are Baptists, Methodists, Seven Day Adventists, Muslims or Rastas. Our common enemies make no such distinction. So when we come together we don’t come as Baptists, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, Muslims or Rastafarians, but as a people who have and continue to live as second class citizens, disempowered, landless and dependent. We leave our religion at the door and when we constructively collaborate, as we shall tonight, we get right on down to the business of the liberation of our people at home and abroad and devise solutions that will transform us from the dry bones Sister Ali Reid has reminded us that we have become as a people to empowered and vibrant nation building citizens of a free, united and independent Afrikan nation and a strong and independent diaspora, including our own beloved Bahamaland.
You know Brother Morley may not know this but he is one of the heroes of the Pan Afrikan revolution in the Bahamas and the only person I know of in my lifetime to challenge that vestige of our shameful colonial past in Rawson Square at the gates of both our House of Assembly and the Senate, when, after coming from a meeting in which racist anti-Haitian rhetoric was being spewed by white Bahamians and their Black counterparts he was overcome or should I say uplifted by the fighting spirits of Toussaint, Dessalines and Christophe and the many patriots of the Haitian revolution, he grabbed a can of green paint and attempted to cast a painted veil over the abominable visage of our former colonial slave masters. For this heroic act he faced the consequences which his passion for freedom and justice saw as a necessary sacrifice and which somewhat delayed his entry in the legal profession. He is one of my clients whom I am honoured to have represented and whose bold and resolute actions brought home to us as a nation and people the need to rethink our incestuous relationship with the British monarchy and how we interact with our Haitian brothers and sisters in the Bahamas. So when Brother Morley reminded us of Brother Malcolm, he once again set us on track for our crucial deliberations tonight.
In this respect, today I read in the newspaper where our former prime minister, the late Sir Lydnden Oscar Pindling was of Haitian heritage being born to Haitian parents. Now all of you should know by now that I hold no brief for Mr Pindling and that I have consistently been most critical of policies implemented by himself and his government. However, who cares where he came from or whether he was born here or not. The fact is that he is widely considered to be the father of the Bahamian nation and anyone who brings majority rule and independence to the table is all right by me. I don’t care whether his parents were Haitian or not. I could care less whether he was born here of not. Now he did a lot of foolishness, the price for which we are paying today but where he was born and who his parents were is of no concern to any right thinking Bahamians particularly in these times of financial and social crisis in our fledgling nation. Clearly it offers no solution to a single one of the many problems facing our nation. But this is just one more example of the bankruptcy of ideas in both political camps (PLP and FNM) and why it is so essential that we begin our strategic planning tonight so that we can forge ahead with the essential nation building process for our survival in these perilous times.
Our workshops tonight will not be talking shops, but rather a foundation and basis for the ongoing design of a strategic plan of action so that we can end the current inertia which has stiffled our development as a people for the past 500 years and led to the state of affairs which we as a nation have been confronted with in this the twilight dawning of the twenty first century.
Tonight you the mothers and fathers of the Bahamas Pan Afrikan National Congress are going to embark on the conception of a way forwards. After we would have concluded our essential and critical deliberations tonight we should have the nucleus for ongoing discussion and eventually implementation of a strategic plan of action which will carry the Congress into the next century.
Have no doubt about the importance of our discussions tonight for us not only here in the Bahamas but more significantly for the collective survival as a people at home and abroad. We are dealing with All Power to the People and what we do tonight is just a small part of our onward March for freedom and justice for our people at home and abroad.
Sister Ali Reid our erudite MC will now give directions for the conduct of our workshops and our subsequent plenary session when we will chart a way forwards for the Congress.
I look forwards to our work tonight and know that at the end of our deliberations we will have working committees to carry out the strategic plans discussed tonight to a higher level with wider input from our growing Congress family.
A Luta Continua!
Free the Land!
Bahamas Pan Afrikan National Congress Organizer Dion Hanna

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